1 November 2024

When We Were Kings

Blu-ray: When We Were Kings (1996)

101 Films presents Academy Award-winning documentary When We Were Kings (1996), releasing on Bluray this November for the first time in the UK. Leon Gast’s engrossing documentary took 22 years to edit and finance and offers unprecedented access to Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s “Rumble in the Jungle”, which took place nearly 50 years ago on 30th October 1974 and is widely considered one of the greatest sporting events of all time.

Set against the backdrop of the totalitarian regime of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), an aging Ali seeks to regain the titles taken from him after his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War, having failed to do so against Joe Frazier in “The Fight of the Century” three and- a-half years earlier. This time he faced the undefeated and undisputed world heavyweight champion George Foreman and went into the fight as the underdog.

When We Were Kings features extensive archival footage of the lead up to the fight and the accompanying Zaire 74 music festival, and features James Brown, B.B. King, and promoter Don King, while showcasing Ali’s flourishing relationship with the people of Zaire in contrast to Foreman’s awkward and unsuccessful efforts to build his own popularity ahead of the fight.

When We Were Kings.

In 1974, Leon Gast travelled to Africa to film Zaire 74, a music festival planned to accompany an unprecedented sports spectacle: the Rumble in the Jungle, in which late-career underdog Muhammad Ali would contend with the younger powerhouse George Foreman for the boxing heavyweight championship title-” a fight between two blacks in a black nation, organized by blacks,” as a Kinshasa billboard put it. When the main event was delayed, extending Ali’s stay in Africa, Gast wound up amassing a treasure trove of footage, observing the wildly charismatic athlete training for one of the toughest bouts of his career while basking in his role as black America’s proud ambassador to postcolonial Africa. Two decades in the making, When We Were Kings features interviews with Norman Mailer and George Plimpton that illustrate the sensational impact of the fight, rounding out an Academy Award-winning portrait of Ali that captures his charm, grace, and defiance.

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